Celebrating Star Wars with DK Books

The newest Star Wars movie hits theatres last week, and it just so happened to be hubby’s birthday too. Well, that made birthday planning a no-brainer! We all went out to Red Robin for dinner and then to our local theatre to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story on the big screen.

It was a great family night out and only whet our appetite for more Star Wars stuff, like the Han Solo action figure that Tee brought to watch the movie with her (yep, she really did!) and these books from DK. We enjoy all of DK’s nonfiction and reference guides, but we love their Star Wars guides and dictionaries most of all. Read on to learn more and enter to win a copy of LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Path!

Click on the titles or cover pictures to see these books on Amazon.

Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo

We’ve all been eagerly awaiting Solo’s feature movie, and this official guide from DK just makes it better. Intended for a younger audience than the usual visual guides, it still provides tons of info and photos from this latest addition to the Star Wars universe.

Yes we’ve already seen the movie, but even if you haven’t yet, you won’t find any major plot spoilers here. Instead you’ll find lots of information covering the locations, people and creatures, outfits, weapons, and vehicles from the movie, including the outside and an interior cross-section of the Millennium Falcon. We like learning the back stories to characters, especially the members of Enfys Nest’s Cloud-Riders.

Star Wars The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo

We may be all about the new Solo movie right now, but we still love rewatching older favourites too. The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary explores characters, locations, vehicles, and weapons from Episode VII: The Last Jedi. If you haven’t seen this movie yet (what are you waiting for?), you don’t have to worry about spoilers.

This hardcover volume covers all the major and minor characters, as well as identifying quite a few background aliens/characters. Character bios point out fascinating details on their costumes and accessories, and background information about the locations, props, and vehicles flesh out and enhance the movie experience. There are so many little details I never noticed, like that Poe Dameron wears his dead mother’s wedding ring on a necklace around his neck, or that Vice Admiral Holdo’s bracelets represent local star constellation patterns. Did you notice that the door of Luke’s hut is made from the S-foil of his X-wing fighter? I didn’t, but that’s why I love these DK visual dictionaries!

Star Wars Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo

The Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide dives deep into the characters, locations, and vehicles from the movie. The visual guide provides even more detail than DK’s visual dictionaries, with more background info, cross-sections, larger photo spreads and movie stills, and more detailed character profiles.

This beautifully illustrated volume starts with an overview of the current galactic situation at the start of Rogue One including a galactic map and timeline of events leading up to the civil war. Each character comes with a quick reference data file listing planet of birth, species, affiliation, height, and age. Vehicle cross-sections and detailed Death Star plans provide all the trivia and little details that fans love to collect.

LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Path by Adam Bray, Cole Horton, & Tricia Bray

This hefty 200-page hardcover volume is the definitive Star Wars illustrated encyclopedia covering locations, characters and creatures, clothing and gear, a plethora of droids, weapons, and vehicles from Episode I: Attack of the Clones through to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the Clone Wars animated TV series. A visual timeline in the History section provides context for the encyclopedia’s content, from the Crisis on Naboo all the way to Rey finding Luke.

Organized under the broad categories of geography, nature, history, culture, and science and technology, there’s a tremendous amount of detail crammed into every page. Sometimes that means the photos are a bit smaller than I would like, but honestly if they were bigger we’d be looking at 400 more pages at least. For example, there’s a 2-page spread just on different styles of binoculars, and another just for luggage. Droids take up 14 pages (this is Tee’s current favourite section). This really is the ultimate guide for any fan.

LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Path by Simon Hugo

Combining fan-pleasing LEGO Star Wars builds and minifigs with the fun of classic choose your adventure books, kids will love this new addition to DK’s Star Wars collection. Will you choose the Light Side or the Dark Side?

Start your journey with one of three options:

• Hunt down the Sith with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• Join forces with Pricess Leia and the Rebel Alliance in their fight against the Empire.
• Help Rey defeat the First Order.

Each choice changes how the story ends. Will you be caught in carbonite or successfully steal the Death Star plans? Will you take Emporer Palpatine prisoner or be vanquished by Vader?

With over 40 endings, your child can read and re-read this book for hours of entertainment. It also comes with a LEGO Star Wars U-3PO droid minifigure in the cover to act as a guide through their adventures.

Ultimate LEGO Star Wars by Chris Malloy & Andrew Becraft

Speaking of LEGO Star Wars, this impressively heavy volume covers every LEGO Star Wars set, vehicle, and minifig from the very first sets introduced in 1999 through to the summer of 2017, up to and including the Holy Grail of LEGO STAR Wars, the 7541-piece Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon. Brick fans young and old will love this complete reference guide.

Organized thematically by characters/creatures, location sets, and vehicles/equipment, this 320-page volume includes an alphabetical index at the back and a full set index organized by release year so you can cross-reference all the parts of a single set. Includes advent calendars, promotional builds and minifigs packaged with books (DK is famous for these!), magazines, DVDs, and video games.

Each set has detailed close-up images, identifying characteristics, a short description, how each set fits in to the Star Wars timeline, LEGO Star Wars theme (Classic, Planets, Ultimate Collectors Series, Legends, Microfighters, etc.), and set number.

I really enjoyed looking at the early concept models and seeing how the sets have evolved over the years. I was a bit surprised by just how much Tee loved looking up the sets that she already has and comparing the different versions of minifigs and models.

Win LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Path

One of my readers will win their own copy of LEGO Star Wars: Choose Your Path for their own Star Wars fan. Enter in the giveaway widget below. This giveaway is open to residents of Canada, 18+. All the winner’s entries will be verified.

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Disclosure: I received samples to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ. This post contains affiliate links. This West Coast Mommy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. I will receive a small commission if you purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you. This income helps pay for the operating costs of my website – thank you for your support!